Tesla Motors

On June 13 2014 19:53 calh wrote:
Do they and can they forteit their right to sue though? If not, I don't think any company will take the risk that they suddenly change their mind.

On June 13 2014 20:21 SpikeStarcraft wrote:
I think this is a very calculated move.

Tesla's always gonna stay a niche product if electric cars and the infrastructure for it doesnt become standard. Or they will flat out die. By opening up, they hope to push the entire market and its infrastructure towards electric cars. Its way easier to establish now, you give up a little bit of your lead and share your technology but you make sure that your technology wins the war.

I think its minimizing the risk of failure for the entire company by giving up some market share in the long run.

On June 13 2014 19:53 calh wrote:
Do they and can they forteit their right to sue though? If not, I don't think any company will take the risk that they suddenly change their mind.

On June 14 2014 00:34 S_SienZ wrote:

A lot of big companies already do this. Microsoft and IBM for example allow a lot of small scale firms work with their technologies (usually you just apply for a license, and they'll grant it) , again provided in good faith. General practice is that it's hardly worth it for them to sue anyway, since small firms can't pay up + not worth all the bad press it would bring.

This is where a distinction between patents and trade marks shows. For trade marks, you HAVE to sue, or you risk losing it. Enforcement of patents are completely optional.

On June 13 2014 20:21 SpikeStarcraft wrote:
I think this is a very calculated move.

Tesla's always gonna stay a niche product if electric cars and the infrastructure for it doesnt become standard. Or they will flat out die. By opening up, they hope to push the entire market and its infrastructure towards electric cars. Its way easier to establish now, you give up a little bit of your lead and share your technology but you make sure that your technology wins the war.

I think its minimizing the risk of failure for the entire company by giving up some market share in the long run.

On June 13 2014 22:26 amazingxkcd wrote:
Tesla is gambling on the fact that if people start to use these patents, they already have the infrastructure to mass produce them and thus will be the biggest seller of them, which makes them more money in the long run

On June 14 2014 05:41 GreenHorizons wrote:
Should be interesting to see if Google takes any significant interest. A Google+Tesla tech project sounds promising.

On June 14 2014 01:06 dignitas.merz wrote:


License =/= Giving everyone permission to freely make use of technology protected by patent.

License is the primary tool to actually maintain ownership over your intellectual property while using that intellectual property to make money. By licensing you give the licensee permission to use products/tools/programs/trademarks or what have you, but the licensee doesn't actually own any of the intellectual property and the intellectual property holder can still sue for infringement. Generating income from intellectual property is usually done by granting a license to someone else.

Most computer games work like this, none of us own the intellectual property tied to i.e. Starcraft II, we're just granted a license to use it.

On June 14 2014 01:10 dignitas.merz wrote:


Also this. They may give up current patents, because they are not benefitting from locking up important tech on the market right now by not sharing their patents. Letting everyone else into the game will probably benefit them in the long run. Nothing says they wont patent technology in the future which might be key to maintain market access for other involved companies. Tesla will in return demand that they pay for this technology, Tesla wins.

On June 13 2014 20:21 SpikeStarcraft wrote:
I think this is a very calculated move.

Tesla's always gonna stay a niche product if electric cars and the infrastructure for it doesnt become standard. Or they will flat out die. By opening up, they hope to push the entire market and its infrastructure towards electric cars. Its way easier to establish now, you give up a little bit of your lead and share your technology but you make sure that your technology wins the war.

I think its minimizing the risk of failure for the entire company by giving up some market share in the long run.

On June 14 2014 15:11 Yurie wrote:
If electric cars take off, how are they producing the energy? If by using Coal power plants the pollution is worse than using an ECO friendly car using Diesel or Gasoline...

This reminds me of when Volvo made the three point seat belt free for everybody to use. Though a bit more monetary gain possible this time around.

On June 14 2014 15:11 Yurie wrote:
If electric cars take off, how are they producing the energy? If by using Coal power plants the pollution is worse than using an ECO friendly car using Diesel or Gasoline...

This reminds me of when Volvo made the three point seat belt free for everybody to use. Though a bit more monetary gain possible this time around.

On June 14 2014 15:11 Yurie wrote:
If electric cars take off, how are they producing the energy? If by using Coal power plants the pollution is worse than using an ECO friendly car using Diesel or Gasoline...

This reminds me of when Volvo made the three point seat belt free for everybody to use. Though a bit more monetary gain possible this time around.

On June 14 2014 15:18 slytown wrote:
Hydrogen is where its at. Maybe their battery technology will translate.

On June 14 2014 21:14 anomalopidae wrote:


Yeah, not sure what exactly is in that TED video, but the superchargers produce electricity through conversion of solar power, whatever is left over they sell into the grid. At least that's how I understood the whole concept of it. Of course solar panels aren't exactly eco friendly either, but a bit better than coal/oil for sure.

On June 15 2014 02:25 Acritter wrote:

Hydrogen is a means of storing energy, not a means of producing energy. Batteries and hydrogen fuel cells serve the exact same purpose, so there's no reason to use both in one vehicle (outside of some half-baked hybrid notion, which would work just as well if not better with something like biofuels).

HAWTHORNE, Calif. — Tesla Motors didn't announce the self-driving car that some had expected but did roll out an exotic suite of driver-aid and safety features Thursday night.

And it said it'll have a hopped-up version of its Model S that has all-wheel drive and blasts to 60 mph in little more than 3 seconds.

Tesla's moves are closely watched by its shareholders, who seem to bid up stock prices wildly, then sell, so the Tesla shares rocket, then tumble, somewhat like technology stocks. And the electric-carmaker's moves are considered a foretaste of what mainstream automakers might need to emulate to stay abreast of the latest technology.

Tesla announced Thursday that the all-wheel-drive versions of its Model S electric car will manage a slight increase in range of about 10 miles on a charge vs. the rear-drive models — for a maximum of 275 miles — because of efficiencies designed into the new system.

Tesla says that it can upgrade its first and now-discontinued model, the Roadster, to drive 400 miles on a single charge—the longest operating range yet for the company’s all-electric vehicles. But there are only about 2,500 vehicles in existence that can receive the upgrade.

The extended range comes from a combination of improved battery technology since the Roadster’s introduction in 2008, improved aerodynamics and lower-friction tires. The company says it will drive a retrofitted model from San Francisco to Los Angeles to demonstrate the new technology in early 2015, and Roadster owners will be able to make appointments to receive the upgrade in the spring. There is no word yet on how much the update will cost.

The original Roadster could travel 245 miles on a single charge, while Tesla’s current Model S has a range of 265 miles. The average US driver drove about 30 miles per day in 2009, according to a US government study (pdf), but “range anxiety” is often seen as a problem faced by companies marketing all-electric vehicles.

The company has yet to reveal the range of the SUV-style Model X, which begins deliveries next year, or still forthcoming Model 3, expected to be a more affordable option than the Model S, which starts at $71,070 before incentives. Tesla’s announcement stresses that no upgrades to the Model S are expected soon, and CEO Elon Musk deleted a tweet that reportedly promised the upgrade to its existing models “obviously *will* happen long-term.”

ELON MUSK, A man not known for subtlety or lack of ambition, has a plan to dominate the transportation sector. He doesn’t call it that, of course. He gave it the far more benign name Master Plan, Part Deux.

Beyond creating a vertically integrated company that builds electric vehicles, batteries to store the power to propel them, and the solar panels to generate that power, he wants to create whole new vehicle lineups. Some of them sound like they’re in advanced stages of development.

The plan, which Musk posted to the Tesla Motors blog on Wednesday afternoon, comes a decade after Part One, which essentially laid out the company’s plan to make boatloads of money with the Model S so it could produce the more affordable Model 3. Having crossed those things off his to-do list—while also outfitting an automobile factory, a battery factory, and, oh, running SpaceX and Solar City—Musk has moved on to the second phase of his plan.

Even as the company scrambles to produce the Model 3 sedan that Musk remains convinced will bring EVs to the masses, Tesla Motors, according to the Master Plan, Part Deux, sees itself creating a compact SUV and “a new kind of pickup truck.” Beyond that, Musk says, “there are two other types of electric vehicle needed: heavy-duty trucks and high passenger-density urban transport.”

He means big-rigs and buses, and says both are the early stages of development—and could be revealed next year. “We believe the Tesla Semi will deliver a substantial reduction in the cost of cargo transport, while increasing safety and making it really fun to operate.”
Now, electric buses are nothing new. San Francisco is crawling with them. But a Tesla bus? You know it would be gorgeous. Musk says they’d be smaller than you’re used to, but offer plenty of room for wheelchairs, strollers, and bikes. They’ll be quick enough to keep up with traffic, and deliver a smooth ride.

Where things get really wild, though, is his claim that Tesla buses would not have to stick to pre-determined routes like the busses that rumble past your office. A little intelligent planning with smartphones and mapping (think = Uber Pool) can deliver people right to their door. He’s even put some thought into what people without smartphones will do. They can use fixed summon buttons at existing bus stops, which will otherwise be redundant.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk teased the first image of the upcoming all-electric Tesla Semi truck during a TED Talk on Friday, describing in terms usually associated with the flash and elegance of a sports car. It’s really impossible to verify that’s the case based on this first picture — a shadowy behemoth surrounded by darkness, save for a couple lightning-bright headlines which light up the outline of the truck’s exterior. But we’ll take Musk’s word for it.

“This will be a very spry truck,” Musk told the audience at his talk. “You can drive it around like a sports car.”

Musk has already taken the prototype for a test spin around a parking lot.

“There’s no gears,” he said. “It’s like single speed.”

The truck seems to retain the characteristic headlight design seen on the Tesla Model X and Model S. If the company is truly serious about going into the world of semis, it’s certainly trying to make sure keeps its identity. And it wants to turn Tesla Semi into an industry bully that can help alleviate heavy-duty trucking loads better than its competitors.

“With the Tesla Semi, we want to show that an electric truck can out torque any diesel semi,” he said. “If you had a tug-of-war competition, the Tesla Semi will tug the diesel semi uphill.”

Tesla will make a bigger reveal of Tesla Semi this coming September, which will be followed in the next 18 to 24 months with new details on a new electric pick-up truck model.

“It’s quite bizarre test-driving,” Musk said. “When I was driving the test prototype for this truck, it’s really weird because you’re driving around because you’re so nimble and you’re in this giant truck. I drove it around the parking lot. I was like, ‘this is crazy.’”

Musk added that the company is looking to open up four new Gigafactory sites in the near future, and they should be announced later this year, supporting chatter brought up by Tesla’s latest earnings statement.

Beyond that, Musk says Tesla’s testing of it autonomous driving systems is going very well, and believes the company could have the capability to demonstrate a totally automated drive of a passenger from California to New York before the end of the year.

And there’s no doubt Musk wants to see an autonomous Tesla Semi one day, although he acknowledges that’s a much more difficult thing to achieve. “We want to be cautious of the autonomy features” on a truck, he cautioned.

On July 01 2017 01:10 pmh wrote:
In other words:our patents are virtually worthless.

Nah probably not,just kidding. But this still looks like a kinda weird move to me. What are they hoping to gain here?
Maybe they want to push a standard for electric cards like with charging,but is that not highly flexible already? Like a charging station with xx kwh could probably also easily be made to charge at xy kwh. Maybe they want a bit help in building the infrastructure which probably would be to costly to do by themselves?

The wait is almost over. Tesla CEO Elon Musk revealed on his Twitter page Sunday evening that the Model 3 has passed all regulatory requirements “two weeks ahead of schedule,” and the first production car should arrive shortly. To celebrate, Musk has announced possibly the most hotly anticipated event in the Model 3’s journey: the launch party.

The Model 3 is an important moment for Tesla. The entry-level sedan will start at $35,000, far cheaper than the company’s current cheapest car, the $68,000 Model S. The release opens Tesla up to a far wider market, and demand is expected to be high for a vehicle made by a company that, until now, has only made electric vehicles priced at a premium.

The first 30 customers will be invited to a special event, taking place July 28, where the company will hand over the world’s first Model 3 vehicles. These lucky few will be the envy of the Tesla world: Over 400,000 people have put down a deposit to order the $35,000 car as soon as it hits the roads. The reservation backlog is so long that new orders are expected to arrive around mid-2018 or later.

It’s exciting news, but customers will still want to know more about optional extras. Until now, the only thing we’ve known for sure price-wise about the Model 3 is its starting price. Pre-release models spotted on the streets of California since March have revealed the company is testing a variety of color options. Tesla may use the handover party to reveal how much extras like premium paint options, seating, and sound will set consumers back.

Musk also revealed that “SN1” (serial number 1) will be completed on Friday.

The company set itself the deadline of starting production on July 1. While it’s uncertain whether Tesla met that specific goal, it appears the company has excelled at its attempt to meet a goal that even Musk described as “impossible.” Musk explained to investors in May that the July 1 deadline was more to hold its suppliers’ “feet to the fire” to ensure parts were delivered on time, making Tesla’s achievement all the more impressive.

Musk also revealed that the company is expected to reach a production rate of 20,000 Model 3 cars per month by the end of the year, reaching its goal, set in February, of 5,000 cars per week. Currently, Tesla makes around 100,000 cars per year, but in February the company set itself the goal of producing over 500,000 Model 3 vehicles per year alone. It’s an ambitious goal, but considering Tesla has managed to reach its Model 3 production goals until now, the future looks promising.

Tesla’s supercharger network is going to get way, way bigger in the next year, but on Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk let on that some of the improvements might be on a different scale than another few charging points.

During a question and answer session of Tesla’s second quarter earnings call, Musk said that Tesla was on the verge of unveiling its first Mega Supercharger station, a combination of a gas station and a luxury-class rest stop, packed to the brim with amenities to keep a Tesla road tripping family occupied while their electric car fills its battery back up at a supercharger.

Musk was responding to a question from Colin Langdon, an analyst at UBS, who wanted to know how Tesla assessed the numbers and needs of its supercharger network going into the mass production of the Tesla Model 3. Musk explained that expanding the network, which he claims will triple by the end of 2018, is more than just adding more superchargers, it’s also figuring out where the superchargers should go. The network is divided between superchargers that are placed strategically on major highways to enable longer distance trips, and ones in city centers that serve the daily demands of customers in high traffic areas (Musk mentioned the the uber-rich, super-dense neighborhood of Malibu in Los Angeles specifically). To make the experience even better for Tesla A-listers and owners, Musk said the company was planning a different kind of supercharger as well.

“We’ll also be experimenting with our first, I dunno what you’d call it, mega Supercharger location, like really big supercharger location with a bunch of amenities so we’re gonna unveil the first of those relatively soon.” Musk said. “I think we’ll get a sense for how cool it can be to have a great place if you’ve been driving for three four hours to stop, y’know have great restrooms, great food, amenities, hang out for half an hour then be on your way.”

John McNeil, Telsa’s president of global sales and service, chimed in, explaining that in some places, particularly the supercharger stations in between cities, still have a lot of open slots much of the time, meaning that the network isn’t operating at full capacity even at its current size. This, he said, was a good sign for the network being able to handle the influx of Model 3s, which are surely coming as the company ramps up production.

In the hours before the official reveal, Tesla showed not one, but two trucks to journalists ahead of the unveiling: a standard model and another with an aerodynamics package. There were tense moments leading up to the reveal, with Tesla employees buzzing around nervously.

There have been rumors that Tesla is developing its own chip optimized for self-driving applications ever since we reported on the automaker quietly hiring legendary chip architect Jim Keller from AMD last year.

Now CEO Elon Musk finally confirmed the rumor – specifying that Tesla is working on its own new AI chip and that the effort is led by Keller.

At the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) yesterday, Musk held a fireside chat with Tesla’s new Director of AI and Autopilot Vision, Andrej Karpathy, Jim Keller, Tesla’s Vice-President of Autopilot Hardware Engineering, and Shivon Zilis, a partner at Bloomberg Beta and a project director for Musk’s office.

According to people at the event, the discussion revolved around Tesla’s artificial intelligence work and it was seemingly a recruiting effort for the company.

But Musk also made a few interesting comments, including a confirmation that Tesla is working on its own AI chip to enable self-driving technology.

The CEO confirmed that Keller is behind the effort, which he believes will result in “the best custom AI hardware in the world.”

Keller has an important reputation in the hardware world after having been a key player in the creation of several architectures, like Athlon K7 and K8 at AMD, before developing Apple’s A4 and A5 processors, which powered most of Apple’s mobile devices from 2010 to 2012. He later came back to AMD and led the design of the company’s latest chip architecture.

After quietly joining Tesla in late 2015, we reported that the automaker poached a team of chip architects and executives from AMD following Keller’s hire.

That’s when the speculation that Tesla is working on its own chip, presumably for self-driving, started. It was also in the middle of Tesla changing hardware from Mobileye to Nvidia for its Autopilot program.

Tesla is now up to its Autopilot ‘2.5’ hardware suite with more computing power for autonomous driving based on Nvidia’s Drive PX platform.

Musk previously said that he expects Tesla’s 2.0 and 2.5 Autopilot hardware suites to enable “fully self-driving”, but if it doesn’t, Tesla will replace the computers in those vehicles for free.

And now we know that Tesla is working on computers with its own AI chips.

When asked about potential improvements at the event yesterday, Keller said that there are opportunities to remove overheads between components for specialized hardware, which Musk says could result in 10 times the current power for a fraction of the cost.

Computing power inside vehicles is becoming increasingly important and like several other generally outsourced vehicle components, Tesla seems dead serious about bringing it in-house.

On December 12 2017 09:22 Laserist wrote:
AI chip? I'd rather call it a regular processor tbh.

On December 13 2017 02:39 jalstar wrote:


AI chips iirc are not CPUs, they are more similar to GPUs.

On December 13 2017 06:44 ZeromuS wrote:
I just want an affordable electric vehicle that can get me from A to B without having to worry about charging every night or if I get caught in traffic in the winter.

The rest can be dealt with via fast charging and inftrastructure. If I can get 300km down the road then charge up and go another 300 and wait an hour for the charge, I could live with it. If I had to do a longer trip than 600km I would just rent a gas car

Beverage companies are continuing to drink Elon Musk’s Kool-Aid. A few days after Anheuser-Busch made the largest preorder of Tesla’s all-electric Semi trucks, PepsiCo swooped in with the new top order. According to Reuters, the soda and snack giant has reserved 100 Semi trucks in a bid to reduce fleet emissions and cut down on fuel costs.

Each reservation requires a $20,000 deposit, so that’s $2 million in Tesla’s bank account right now (assuming PepsiCo placed its order after Tesla raised the deposit amount from the original price of $5,000). And if the trucks end up retailing for around $150,000, that would put the company’s bill to the automaker at $15 million. (That’s if and when the trucks end up shipping — which, knowing Tesla, could be a moving target.)

The trucks would only represent a fraction of PepsiCo’s 10,000-vehicle fleet, but a company executive told Reuters the Semis would be put to use for short-haul deliveries:

PepsiCo intends to deploy Tesla Semis for shipments of snack foods and beverages between manufacturing and distribution facilities and direct to retailers within the 500-mile (800-km) range promised by Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk.

The semi-trucks will complement PepsiCo’s U.S. fleet of nearly 10,000 big rigs and are a key part of its plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain by a total of at least 20 percent by 2030, said Mike O‘Connell, the senior director of North American supply chain for PepsiCo subsidiary Frito-Lay.

PepsiCo is analyzing what routes are best for its Tesla trucks in North America but sees a wide range of uses for lighter loads like snacks or shorter shipments of heavier beverages, O‘Connell said.

Since it was unveiled last month, Tesla has racked up a fair number of preorders from several big-name players in shipping and logistics. The day after the announcement, Walmart said it had preordered 15 trucks, while JB Hunt Transport Services said it had reserved “multiple” new Tesla trucks as well.

In the weeks that followed, others lined up to put their deposit down, including Ryder, DHL, and Canadian supermarket chain Loblaw. (Jalopnik just published a nice roundup of all the companies that have said they plan to purchase the trucks.)

Which beverage company will be next to preorder some Tesla Semis? Coca-Cola? Nestle? InBev? Or will it be Kraft, owners of Kool-Aid?

On December 13 2017 06:44 ZeromuS wrote:
I just want an affordable electric vehicle that can get me from A to B without having to worry about charging every night or if I get caught in traffic in the winter.

The rest can be dealt with via fast charging and inftrastructure. If I can get 300km down the road then charge up and go another 300 and wait an hour for the charge, I could live with it. If I had to do a longer trip than 600km I would just rent a gas car

Several Tesla suppliers are now reporting that Model 3 production is increasing rapidly and they are back to working on Tesla’s guidance of 5,000 units per week in December, which was delayed last month.

In October, a few days before Tesla’s earnings and the announcement of the Model 3 production ramp-up delay, Taiwanese auto component maker Hota Industrial Mfg. Co announced that Tesla slashed its orders for Model 3 parts by 40% (5,000 per week to 3,000).

Now the same supplier, which makes gears and axles, told Taiwanese media that Tesla increased the demand for parts back to 5,000 units per week this month.

Chairman Shen Guorong even said that they now have to mobilize the whole company and work overtime in order to comply with the change and that they are even shipping parts by airplanes instead of boats.

The report also cites other Taiwanese suppliers for Tesla’s Model 3 saying that production is now increasing following the bottlenecks.

While it’s certainly great news that the suppliers have to increase their production sooner than anticipated – at least following the announced delay, it’s important to keep in mind that there can be an important delay between the part orders and the actual assembly due to transit time.

If the parts are being produced at 5,000 per week now, it can take up to a month before Tesla can put them in a Model 3, which would mean that the 5,000 per week production level would be achieved in January. Though it’s still earlier than the end of Q1 2018, which was the anticipation since the delay announced last month.

But if they are even shipping by air, that’s a very good indicator of a production increase in the short-term.

As we reported yesterday, Tesla is definitely ramping up Model 3 deliveries this week, but the level of deliveries wasn’t high enough to correlate it to a significant production increase just yet.

But it’s now starting to make more sense with this new information coming from the supply chain.

After the announcement of the delay, Musk changed his guidance to “a few thousand units per week” in December. It looks like it might be happening. Maybe we should expect new batches of invitations to configure the Model 3 to be sent out to regular reservation holders.

Tesla Inc. has kicked off production of its long-awaited electricity-producing shingles that Elon Musk says will transform the rooftop solar industry.

Manufacturing of the photovoltaic glass tiles began last month at a factory in Buffalo built with backing from New York State, the company said in an email Tuesday. It comes more than a year after Tesla unveiled the shingles to a mix of fanfare and skepticism.

The appeal: a sleek, clean solar product, especially for homeowners seeking to replace aging roofs. The tiles -- from most angles -- look like ordinary shingles. They allow light to pass from above and onto a standard flat solar cell.

Tesla, the biggest U.S. installer of rooftop-solar systems, piloted the product on the homes of several employees. The company expects to begin installing roofs for customers within the next few months.

Solar shingles will cost more than a conventional roof along with photovoltaic panels -- but not “wickedly so,” said Hugh Bromley, a New York-based Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyst. He estimates a Tesla roof would cost about $57,000 for a 2,000-square-foot house, compared to about $41,000 for terracotta tiles along with a 5-kilowatt solar-panel system. A plain-old asphalt roof with panels would run about $22,000, Bromley said.

“It may actually do well in overseas markets where solar-photovoltaic is cheap and homeowners are used to paying a premium for building materials and cars -- such as Australia,” Bromley said in an email.

Tesla started production of solar cells and panels about four months ago at its Gigafactory 2 in Buffalo. New York committed $750 million to help build the 1.2 million-square-foot factory, which currently employs about 500 people. The plant will eventually create nearly 3,000 jobs in Western New York and nearly 5,000 statewide, Governor Andrew Cuomo said in 2015.

On November 22 2019 17:37 Harris1st wrote:
Lol it's actually bullet proof. WTF Elon

On November 22 2019 21:25 Sadist wrote:
That Truck looks hideous. I wonder if itll sell. Cool idea though.


I dont think people who buy pickups are typically in Teslas wheelhouse so I have a hard time thinking theyll be making a dent in any current truck buyers from other OEMs. Id guess this is just another option for someone whod already consider a Tesla anyway

On November 23 2019 02:54 Sadist wrote:
I didnt realize that this is just a concept car.

It doesnt have side mirrors which are a legal requirement.

I also have been thinking about towing with this thing. Ive read the model X is not good for towing (you get terrible eMPG) while its towing anything.

The more I think about it the less im sold on an electric pickup truck with the current infastructure.

On November 23 2019 05:10 thePunGun wrote:

It's not a concept car, it's already available for pre-order on tesla's site starting at $39,900.

On November 26 2019 10:44 Starlightsun wrote:
That window break at the reveal felt like SNL sketch.

On November 26 2019 19:07 Harris1st wrote:


Who needs side mirrors when you can have cameras and screens?

Also it has probably one of the best towing powers there are. Just not for a very long time I guess

On November 26 2019 10:47 GreenHorizons wrote:


I just wonder whether it was them somehow getting bullet proof glass wrong, or some worker unwilling to tell Elon they just put a regular laminated window in there?

On November 26 2019 22:11 ETisME wrote:

apparently it's because the window is being sealed tight, which is different than the ball test they did where the glass have room to release the pressure.
That being said, I don't think it's a good idea to have bullet proof glass? don't you need to break the side windows if something goes wrong?

On November 26 2019 23:16 Sadist wrote:
Whats odd is they dont plan to paint these? Im not aware of people painting stainless steel. Only a flourex film coating for colors.

Also just because its stainless steel doesnt mean it wont rust. Theres a high chance this thing gets rust spots on it.

On November 27 2019 00:37 MrShankly wrote:



It was because the sledge hammer against the steal actually managed to crack the glass. So when the ball was thrown - the already cracked glass just shattered.


Anyway I think tesla cars all look quite nice - This truck I thought looked terrible... but it is actually growing on me xD.

If I was to buy an electric car - at the moment it would probably be a tesla. not sure I would get the truck though.

On November 27 2019 19:36 Harris1st wrote:


That's why they got over 200.000 pre-orders for that thing I guess....

If I were a fan of SUV and pickups I could see myself in that thing.

A rematch of the Tesla Cybertruck tug-of-war with the Ford F-150 is not going ahead anytime soon after Ford issued an official statement dismissing the challenge as “tongue-in-cheek”.

Earlier this week a senior executive at Ford had issued a challenge to Elon Musk via Twitter after a Tesla video showed a Cybertruck towing a Ford F-150 backwards up a hill.

The Ford tweet said: "Send us a Cybertruck and we'll do the apples-to-apples test for you.” Musk responded: “Bring it on”.

Ford claimed it was not a fair contest because the F-150 was lighter and only rear-wheel-drive, versus the heavier all-wheel-drive Cybertruck.

Now Ford has issued an official statement to US media outlets claiming the Twitter message from the Ford executive was “tongue in cheek to point out the absurdity of Tesla’s video, nothing more”.

The Ford statement to US media outlet Fox continued: “With America's best-selling truck for 42 years, we've always focused on serving our truck customers regardless of what others say or do. We look forward to our all-new F-150 hybrid coming next year and all-electric F-150 in a few years.”

In July this year Ford released a video showing an electric Ford F-150 prototype pulling a 450-tonne train, though the company declined to release technical details such as power output.

For now, the Tesla Cybertruck and F-150 tug-of-war is off. But it’s likely to be the first test anyone does when these vehicles come out.

The Tesla Cybertruck is slated for production in 2021; Ford is yet to announce an on-sale date for the fully electric F-150.

On November 27 2019 19:14 Broetchenholer wrote:
That's exactly what they were thinking. Nobody but people who need a ridiculous status symbol will be interested in that thing, so they designed it to look just like that. Wake me up when ecars with a minimalistic approach are sold by tesla.

On November 30 2019 12:22 BerserkSword wrote:


This is just wrong.

It's faster than a porsche 911, can out-muscle a ford F150, can tank a sledgehammer hit to the body, is all wheel drive, is electric, and the windows can stop 9mm bullets. all of this for a relatively low price

and it looks pretty sick

There are plenty who are, and will be, interested in this.

On December 08 2019 19:42 Salazarz wrote:


None of the things you've listed are in any way practically useful to the average driver. :p

On December 08 2019 23:40 Dangermousecatdog wrote:
What is it that you are trying to say?

On December 08 2019 23:54 GreenHorizons wrote:


It's basically a dystopian fantasy grocery getter, ideal for the hipster pseudo-prepper.

On December 09 2019 03:15 ShoCkeyy wrote:


Or maybe its for those who have work trucks, and would prefer an electric version of their work truck. I know many truckers who would switch to the Tesla truck as soon as it was announced because they want to use no gas... It's not that hard to grasp that people want to switch from gas to electric already.

edit: Also wanted to include that on avg people who use trucks are spending between $20k-70k in diesel/gas a year. Imagine spending that on electricity. That's what tesla literally claims, that you'll spend nothing on fuel while only increasing your electricity cost by a small amount that is less than what you pay yearly on fuel.

-Lots of truckers like their F150 and using oil, many do a lot of work where there's not necessarily much access to electricity.

-There aren't any affordable vehicles on the market with a stainless steel body. Probably because it's expensive and unsafe. No way they make it for $40k.

-Small trunk, awkwardly narrow, surrounded with an expensive stainless body...

-Target audience probably isn't particularly sensitive to environmental advantages of electric vehicles

Tesla is gearing up for the first deliveries of its “Made in China” Model 3.

Local customers have noticed that Tesla’s China-specific Model 3 configurator has been updated with the removal of language that translates to, “MIC Model 3 is subject to regulatory approval.” The update comes after the Chinese government officially recommended the Model 3 for its electric vehicle incentive, giving buyers as much as $3,550 off the price of the car.

Additionally, following Tesla’s confirmation of a permit to sell its China-manufactured mass-market electric car, carriers loaded with Model 3 and a holding area full of Model 3 inventory were spotted at Gigafactory 3, further supporting speculation that the carmaker is preparing to make its first customer deliveries in the country.

Tesla’s focus on the Chinese market is important to the future of the company. China has the largest automotive market in the world according to a report from nolasia.net. In 2015, Chinese citizens bought 24.6 million vehicles, 7.5 million more units than the second closest vehicle market in the United States. The locally-produced Model 3 will cost around $50,000 USD or 355,800 Chinese Yuan.

China could be a major key to the growth of Tesla’s international market. With the help of the Chinese government, Tesla was able to open Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai in an area where the company would not be impacted by tariffs set into place between the United States and China. Thanks to Gigafactory 3, Tesla will be able to compete in the local Chinese market with Model 3 and Model Y variants that are more aggressively-priced than their imported counterparts.

“Tesla has the first wholly-owned manufacturing facility in China of any automotive company. So, this is profound. And we’re very appreciative of the Chinese government allowing us to do this. I think it is symbolic of them wanting to open the market and apply and it farewells to everyone. I’d just say like an order of appreciation for the Chinese government in allowing us to do that. It’s a very significant thing,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during an earnings call in January 2019.

Drone footage confirms that Tesla is now steadily producing and shipping made-in-China Model 3 vehicles out of Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai.

In October, Tesla confirmed that it has produced full vehicles at Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai as part of its trial production.

A few weeks later, the automaker obtained its manufacturing license for the new factory in China, but it was still awaiting official sales approval of the made-in-China version of the Model 3.

Earlier this month, we reported that the made-in-China Model 3 was added to the Chinese government’s list of approved vehicles for new energy vehicle subsidies, and deliveries are now expected to start any day.

We reported last week that Tesla had already produced over 400 Model 3 vehicles out of the factory, and it started shipping them out.

Now, a week later, it looks like Tesla is steadily producing and shipping even more made-in-China Model 3 vehicles out of Gigafactory 3.

The latest drone video from Jason Yang shows that the Model 3 lot is still full, and trucks keep coming to take more vehicles away:



The automaker is presumably taking the vehicles to delivery centers around the country, and it is expected to start deliveries to Tesla employees and customers any day now.

In China, the Model 3 Standard Range Plus with Autopilot starts at ¥355,800 (about $50,000).

Tesla has been taking pre-orders for a while now, and the automaker hasn’t disclosed the number of orders it has received.

The company said that it aims to ramp up production to 3,000 Model 3 vehicles per week at the factory by early next year.

Tesla has reached a deal with Michigan that will allow the company to sell its cars directly in the state, bringing a multiyear legal battle to an end. It’s a small but crucial victory for Tesla, and one that comes in the home state of the automotive industry.

Thanks to a state law that forces automakers to work with dealers to sell their vehicles, would-be Tesla customers in Michigan have had to travel to neighboring states to buy one of the company’s vehicles. Tesla owners had to do the same to get their vehicles serviced.

But that will now change. The Michigan attorney general’s office announced Wednesday morning that it reached an agreement with Tesla to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the company in 2016 over the state law. (Tesla sued after the state denied it a dealership license.) While Michigan is not repealing the law, it is essentially admitting that there’s enough wiggle room in the language to allow Tesla to sidestep dealer networks and sell directly to consumers moving forward.

Tesla will now be able to make deliveries to customers in Michigan, and also walk customers through the buying process at its lone showroom in the state — something it was previously unable to do. The company will also likely open more showrooms and service centers as a result.

There are small caveats to all this, though. Cars sold in the state will have to come with out-of-state titles in order to get around the language of the law. That means customers in Michigan will have to go through the process of transferring the title if they want the car to be titled in their home state. And any service centers Tesla opens in Michigan will have to be owned by a subsidiary.

While it may seem like a strange way to compromise, Dan Crane, a law professor at the University of Michigan, believes it may have been the only way for the state to save face.

“What happened here is I think the Michigan attorney general realized that going through this trial would be embarrassing for the state,” he said.

Instead, Crane said, the state decided to “settle in a way that lets Tesla do what it wants to do, but gives the appearance of complying with Michigan law.”

Will Zerhouni, who wrote an analysis of Tesla’s legal fight with Michigan for the Cato Institute in 2018, agreed — though he’s not sure the state went far enough.

“The settlement shows that Michigan saw its position as untenable and potentially indefensible at trial,” wrote Zerhouni, who is now a founder and partner at Mighty Stream Capital Management LLC, a new firm focused on impact investing and litigation finance. “Instead, the state, which couldn’t rescind validly passed law on its own, settled in a way that read onerous and anticompetitive (and potentially unconstitutional) restrictions out of that law. That is all to the good — but it would be better if the state (and others) did away with the charade and repealed the law altogether.”

The decision to dismiss Tesla’s lawsuit, once it’s approved by the court, will not just make it easier for Tesla to sell its cars directly to consumers, but could help other automakers as well, according to Crane and Zerhouni.

“Consumers are used to e-commerce and direct-to-consumer sales these days, and are starting to expect to be able to buy cars this way. It’s going to be hard to hold back the floodgates,” Crane said.

“The settlement is technically only an agreement between Tesla and Michigan,” Zerhouni said. “It would, however, be very hard for Michigan to say that they are going to interpret the statute differently for other automakers.”

The decision could also put pressure on other states that have resisted allowing car companies to sell directly to consumers, like Connecticut and Texas, according to Crane.

“Michigan really is a momentum-shifter on this, and it’s going to be increasingly hard for state legislators to convince consumers why they can’t do what everyone expects to be able to do,” he said.

Dealer organizations could try to stand in the way of these changes, possibly by suing the state itself over this new interpretation of the law, Crane said. (Michigan’s dealer association told The Verge it is “still reviewing” the decision, and the National Automobile Dealers Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment.) Still, he doesn’t see them winning out in the end.

“These are legacy statues that came from a much different time, 40, 50 years ago,” Crane said. “The world has changed in so many ways.”

Tesla Model Y first deliveries will begin in March of this year. The all-electric carmaker noted in its Q4 2019 Update Letter that the production ramp for the crossover began as early as January 2020. The company also stated that the Environmental Protection Agency has increased the Model Y’s Dual Motor All-Wheel Drive range to 315 miles, from its original 280-mile rating.

Tesla noted that the pace of its producing vehicles has improved significantly. Crediting the improvements the company has made in its production of the Model 3 in the United States, the Fremont factory has started producing the Model Y and expects to produce 500,000 units of the crossover each year. The vehicle is planned to enter production at Giga Shanghai in 2021.

Tesla expects to begin delivering the Model Y crossover by the end of Q1 2020. “The ramp of Model Y will be gradual as we will be adding additional machinery in various production shops. After such expansions are done by mid-2020, installed combined Model 3 and Model Y capacity should reach 500,000 units per year,” Tesla wrote.

On top of the news that production and deliveries for the Model Y will happen ahead of schedule, Tesla also announced that the EPA formally increased its AWD variant from 280 to 315 miles.

“Due to continued engineering progress of the Model Y all-wheel drive (AWD), we have been able to increase its maximum EPA range to 315 miles, compared to our previous estimate of 280 miles. This extends Model Y’s lead as the most energy-efficient electric SUV in the world,” the company stated.

Initially, the Model Y’s first deliveries were anticipated for the end of 2020. However, Tesla announced during its 2019 Q3 earnings call that the vehicle’s production availability was ahead of schedule and the company formally moved its anticipated delivery dates forward to Summer 2020.

As Tesla enthusiasts have shared numerous sightings of the Model Y over the past months, the company has worked intensively to perfect its first crossover vehicle. It appears that Tesla’s diligent work toward perfecting the production quality of the Model Y has paid off as its production ramp has started ahead of schedule and the company will begin delivering the vehicle by the end of March 2020.

The Model Y is available in two variants, thus far. The Long Range Dual Motor and Performance configuration will both have 315 miles of range and cost $52,990, and $60,990 respectively.

On January 01 2021 04:05 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
At the end of 2020 and a Tesla is already self driving from San Francisco to LA. Insane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQG2IynmRf8&feature=emb_logo

Tesla delivered 241,300 electric vehicles during the third quarter of 2021, the company reported Saturday.

The quarter’s deliveries topped expectations. Analysts predicted that Tesla would deliver around 220,900 electric cars during this period, according to estimates compiled by StreetAccount as of September 30.

The company produced 237,823 cars in the period ending September 30, 2021, Tesla said in its report. Of that, 228,882 were its Model 3 and Y vehicles, its more affordable mid-range offerings.

The remainder produced amounted to 8,941 of its Model S and X vehicles.

Last quarter, Tesla delivered 201,250 vehicles and produced 206,421 cars, even as production of its Model S and X vehicles fell below 2,500.

“Our delivery count should be viewed as slightly conservative, as we only count a car as delivered if it is transferred to the customer and all paperwork is correct. Final numbers could vary by up to 0.5% or more,” the company said in a statement.

Tesla does not break out delivery numbers by model, nor does it report sales or production numbers from China versus the U.S. (Deliveries are the company’s closest approximation of vehicle sales.)

Tesla put customers through repeated, unexpected delivery delays during the quarter. In their release on Saturday, the company acknowledged the delays, blaming them on “global supply chain and logistics challenges,” then thanked customers for their patience.

The press release announcing the production and deliveries report was dated Austin, Texas. Tesla’s web site still lists its headquarters as being in Palo Alto, Calif., but Elon Musk moved to Texas last year and the company is building a new factory in the Austin area.

Tesla is also planning to host its annual shareholder meeting at its plant, now under construction, near Austin on October 7. Musk previously threatened to move Tesla’s headquarters out of California in the spring of 2020 when the state’s Covid-related health orders required Tesla’s Fremont factory to temporarily suspend operations for a few weeks.

Tesla Inc. has pushed back initial production of its futuristic-looking Cybertruck to the first quarter of 2023, according to a Reuters report, which cited a person familiar with the matter.

Production of the electric pickup had been expected to start later this year but was delayed by a decision to change some of the pickup’s features, the report said.

In December, Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to Twitter questions about the truck’s capabilities, saying initial production would be of a four-motor variant, with independent steering of the front and back wheels, which would allow it to drive diagonally “like a crab.”

If and when it does finally come to market, the Cybertruck will have stiff competition from rivals including Ford Motor Co.’s electric F-150 Lightning pickup, set to go on sale in Spring, and General Motors Co.’s Silverado, set to make its debut a year later.

The Cybertruck caused a Twitter storm for all the wrong reasons when Musk unveiled it in November 2019. Tesla’s chief designer was demonstrating the protective capabilities of the vehicles’ armored glass by hurling a metal ball at the windows. Things didn’t go to plan when the front driver-side window smashed, leaving a red-faced Musk to quip: “Maybe that was a little too hard.”

Tesla has finally received full approval to begin production and delivery of customer cars at Giga Berlin.

The full approval comes after Tesla was able to meet the 400 “conditions and requirements” related to things like groundwater protection, species protection measures, and more that were part of the environmental approval that was received on March 4, 2022. (via Sawyer Merritt)

With their operating permit now in place, Tesla can move ahead and begin production and delivery of customer cars.

The first deliveries will take place on March 22, when Tesla plans to hold a special grand opening event with local officials and CEO Elon Musk in attendance.

Musk is expected to personally deliver the first 30 made-in-Germany cars to the lucky new owners.

Once those first 30 Model Y Performance SUVs are delivered, Giga Berlin is expected to quickly ramp production.

Crews at the factory have been able to fine-tune their production line processes during the months of delays in receiving the final approvals.

Tesla just filed its annual proxy statement with the SEC and revealed it plans a three-for-one stock split, and that board member Larry Ellison does not plan to stand for re-election.

Shares of Tesla were up by more than 1% after-hours having closed at $696.69 on Friday.

In the filing, the company wrote of the proposed stock split, “Our success depends on attracting and retaining excellent talent,” and that “highly competitive compensation packages,” offering every employee an option to receive equity, helped Tesla to do that. “We believe the Stock Split would help reset the market price of our common stock so that our employees will have more flexibility in managing their equity.”

A stock split is cosmetic and could mean that smaller investors feel they can afford the stock, but those investors are minuscule compared to major institutions. Many brokerages already offer investors fractional trading, allowing small investors to buy a slice of seemingly expensive stocks.

In its 2022 proxy filing, the electric vehicle and renewable energy business, also revealed that board member Larry Ellison currently owns 1.5% of Tesla shares. Ellison plans to relinquish his duties as a member of Tesla’s board of directors, but the filing did not say who may replace him.

On August 28 2023 00:52 {CC}StealthBlue wrote:
The Ceo of Tesla showing the new version of autopilot that is soon coming out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qG43GSmVK34